Adventures in digital journalism

Posts Tagged ‘qik’

I’m helping out the Hartlepool Mail team with their coverage of the Tall Ships Races 2010.

It’s been a great excuse to play with live video streaming.

It’s the kind of job I love as it lets me fiddle with technology, exploit a platform which minimises effort for instant returns and I’ve been given the freedom to work autonomously.

I’ve used my iPhone 3GS over a 3G connection to stream (near) live footage to a custom page via Qik.

The results have been good, and being able to wander around looking for compelling subjects to shoot with an almost instant upload has been great.

Lessons learned:
– Close all your apps, or notifications that appear on screen will pop up in vids you are streaming back
– Start talking as soon as you push the record button, even if Qik is buffering, or you look dumb 🙂
– Don’t shoot anything further away that ten yards
– Make sure the people back at base have a half-decent connection speed when viewing your results
– Stay within a few hundred yards or a plug point so you can recharge your iPhone at (VERY) regular intervals
– Manage expectations on the quality of video returned and sell the message that what it lacks in quality it more than makes up for in immediacy
– Be quick at returning expense forms if you are about to leave your current employer and you have just racked up a data bill that will make those Jimmy Choos you bought the missus for your anniversary look like a bargain.

I’m back on Tuesday shooting more live footage between 2pm and 7pm if you want to take a look.